Registration device



Sept. 8, 1970 L. H. WIDEMAN REGISTRATION DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 30, 1968 p 1970 L. H. WIDEMAN 3,527,334

REGISTRATION DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 50, 1968 Sept. 8, 1970 L. H. WIDEMAN REGISTRATION DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. so, 1968 Sept. 8, 1-970 1.. H. WIDEMAN 3,527,334

REGISTRATION DEVICE I Filed Aug. 30, 1968 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 I NVENTOR.

Sept. 8, 1970 Filed Aug. 30, 1968 L. H. WIDEMAN REGISTRATION DEVICE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 United States Patent 3,527,334 REGISTRATION DEVICE Luther H. Wideman, Toledo, Ohio, assignor to Owens- Illinois, Inc., a corporation of Ohio Filed Aug. 30, 1968, Ser. No. 756,606 Int. Cl. B65g 47/24 U.S. Cl. 198-33 13 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for orienting and registering a glass container having registering indicium therein; the apparatus including means for supporting and rotating the container, a slide assembly including a lightly biased registration pin located at the elevation of the indexing indicium, and means for controlled movement of the slide whereby it is brought into proximate relation with the container, the pin thereby contacting the container surface in nonnormal fashion and serving to register the container upon contact with the registering indicium.

RELATED PATENTS AND APPLICATIONS In its preferred embodiment the present invention is adapted for use with electrostatic printing apparatus of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,349 and in pending applications Ser. Nos. 595,490, now Pat. No. 3,387,557 and 636,047, now Pat. No. 3,461,795, respectively. Furtherly, the registration device of this invention may be employed on container handling apparatus of the type disclosed in application Ser. No. 759,704.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to handling mechanisms which are used to orient container items prior to their being decorated by known decorating proesses. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved mechanism for obtaining predetermined orientation of cylindrical glass containers prior to applying a decoration thereto.

In all types of techniques for decorating glass containers, whether silk-screen, offset or electrostatic decorating, it is generally required that the container be properly oriented in order to ensure the decoration being centrally located thereon. In the formation of the container, the parting lines of the split mold in which the container is formed result in the formation of a diametrically opposed pair of vertical seams. Normally, it is desired to apply an image or decoration at such a location that the seam does not pass through the decorated region.

As priorly noted, this invention contemplates a registration device which may be employed in conjunction with an electrostatic decorating method. Since this type decorating method is advantageously used to decorate glass containers which are at an elevated temperature, e.g. in excess of about 500 F., it thus *becomes imperative that the registration or orientation be effected at these elevated glass temperatures. In the past, the container wall was conveniently formed with a recess or dimple which served as the indexing reference and by the use of suitable means which engaged this reference proper container orientation resulted. All of these prior registration techniques depend upon a free slipping of the reference engaging means along the surface of the glass and generally function well in registering cold glass containers. Unfortunately, however, hot glass containers are somewhat tacky and their surfaces are characterized by a high coefficient of friction. Because of this relatively high friction surface, the necessary free slippage of the reference engaging means is not attainable and, consequently, the

3,527,334 Patented Sept. 8, 1970 prior art devices are not capable of registering hot glass containers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention there is provided an improvement in reference engaging means for registering glass containers; the improvement thereby allowing for the registration of glass containers at elevated temperatures. A container having reference indicium thereon is supported on a rotatable pad mechanism. Mounted alongside the pad is a translatable slide which includes a lightly biased registering pin. The slide is selectively translated in a controlled manner into proximity with the hot glass surface by means of a main spring and cam elements. The registration finger is mounted on the carriage in such fashion that it engages the glass surface in a non-normal relationship at the elevation of the reference indicium. Because of the lightly biased nature of the registration finger, it will slide along the rotating glass surface until it engages the reference, thereby affecting registration.

IN THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the container registering apparatus of the invention; 18181G. 2 is a top plan view of FIG. 1 turned through FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing the registering finger in retracted position;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of FIG. 2 with parts broken away for clarity;

FIG. 5 is a right side elevational view of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken at line 6-6 of FIG. 2.

It should be kept in mind that the apparatus hereinafter described is to be used in conjunction with vertically oriented printing equipment. The above-referred to patent application Ser. No. 759,704 provides a clear illustration of the preferred apparatus with which the present invention may be used. As explained in the co-pending application, the bottle orienting and registering housing or head includes a pad. The head and and pad will be transported as a unit from a position where the bottles to be decorated are loaded on the pad, then carried into a series of decorating stations and finally to a position where the pads are unloaded. Operation of the registration device of this invention transpires in the interval subsequent to the bottle loading and prior to the entrance of the bottle into a decorating station.

With particular reference to the drawings, a bottle supporting pad 10 is mounted for rotation relative to and supported by a generally vertical housing 11. As previously explained, the housing 11 will be moving in a a generally linear path and is supported by suitable mechanisms not shown. Rotation of the supporting pad 10 in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed from above in FIGS. 1-3 for orienting and registering purposes, is accomplished by rotation of a supporting shaft 12 within the housing 11. Shaft 12 engages mechanisms (not shown) to drive it in a counter-clockwise direction during the bottle orienting and registering step. Later in the cycle of operation, that is after the bottle has been oriented and after the registration pin has been retracted, pad 10 will be driven in a counter-clockwise or clockwise direction for printing on the surface of the container.

The present invention is directed specifically to the mechanical mechanism operating in conjunction with an indicia or indicium formed on the bottle to which the mechanism responsd to provide positive positioning or registration for the container. During the registering of the container and rotation of the pad in a counterclockwise direction, the upper end of the container will be engaged by a finish chuck 13 so as to steady the bottle about its vertical axis. The finish chuck 13 will engage the finish or neck of the bottle with a slight amount of downward force which biases the bottle against the pad 10. As best shown in FIG. 6, the pad 10 is provided with a surface material 14 which, in cooperation with the bottom of the bottle, makes a good frictional engagement.

At one side of the housing 11, a dove-tail shaped, elongated bar 15 is fixed. The bar 15 serves as the main support and guiding surface for the registering mechanism. At the left-hand end of the bar 15, as viewed in FIG. 1, a block 16 is mounted. The block 16 extends outwardly of the bar 15 and, at its forward position there are provided a pair of horizontally extending, vertically spaced guide shafts 17 and 18. The shafts 17 and 18 serve as the guiding members and slideway for a slide 19.

As best shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the slide 19 is formed with an upwardly extending mounting boss 20. The boss 20 is provided With a horizontally extending recessed portion 21 in the rearwardly facing face thereof. The recessed portion 21 serves as the mounting surface for a generally L-shaped member which serves as the registering pin carrying mechanism generally designated 22. A horizontal portion 23 of the L-shaped member is formed with a horizontal slot 24 therein through which a clamping screw 25 extends and threadedly engages the boss 20. The pin carrying mechanism 22 thus may be adjusted horizontally relative to the boss 20 merely by loosening the screw 25 and moving the slotted portion 23 to the right or left, as viewed in FIG. 5.

The L-shaped pin carrying mechanism 22 has a second portion 26 which extends at right angles with respect to the portion 23. The portion 26 is drilled axially thereof to provide a substantially horizonatl opening 27 extending therethrough.

A sleeve bearing 28 is mounted within the opening 27 at substantially the mid-point thereof. The sleeve bearing 28 supports a plunger shaft 29 for longitudinal reciprocating movement therein. One end of the plunger shaft extends outwardly in the direction of the bottle supporting pad and on its outward end has a registering pin 30. At the opposite end of the plunger shaft 29 from the pin 30 is a slightly enlarged diameter head portion 31. The opening 27 through the portion 26 is closed at the end adjacent the head 31 by a threaded plug 32. The plunger shaft is biased in a forward direction by the interpositioning of a compression spring 33 between the plug 32 and the head 31. In this manner the plunger shaft 29 and its registering pin are biased in the direction of a container positioned on the pad 10. Obviously, the amount of biasing force applied to the plunger by the spring 33 may be adjusted by adjustment of the plug 32.

The slide 19, which carries the pin carrying mechanism 22, has a downwardly extending stub shaft 34 fixed to the under-surface thereof and to which one end of a tension spring 35 is connected. The other end of the spring 35 is anchored to a stub shaft 36 which is mounted to a radially extending boss portion 37 of the housing 11. It is this boss portion 37 which provides the mounting surface to which the dove-tail shaped bar 15 is attached. Furthermore, the boss portion 37 extends outwardly and somewhat circumferentially with respect to pad 10 so as to provide a supporting web portion 38. The web portion 38 is generally annular of its extending end and serves as the supporting structure for a pivotally mounted crank 39.

The crank 39 is comprised of two radially extending arms with respect to its pivot axis, one arm of which carries a cam follower roller 40 and a vertically extending stop pin 41. As can best be seen when viewing FIGS. 1 and 3, the web portion 38 is cast with a radially extending, and generally horizontally disposed arm 42 which limits the counter-clockwise rotati n f e c a 39 to the position where the stop pin 41 engages the arm 42. The other arm of the crank 39 carries a lobe portion 43 whose surface blends in with an end surface 44 which is at right angles with respect to the radius of the arm of the crank 39. The surface 44 and the lobe portion 43 cooperatively engage a surface 45 of a slide member 46. The slide member 46 has a configuration such that it substantially embraces the dove-tail shaped bar 15 and is slideable with respect thereto.

The slide member 46 is free to slide with respect to the bar 15 and is formed with a cut-out portion 47 within which a generally U-shaped member 48 is positioned. The two arms of the U-shaped member 48 extend above and below the top and bottom surfaces of the bar 15. The U-shaped member 48 is connected to or may form an integral part of one end of a bar 49. The bar 49 is fixed to the slide 19 by means of a screw 50, as shown in FIG. 6. Inasmuch as the slide 19 is biased by the tension spring 35 toward the left, as viewed in FIGS. 2-4, the slide member 46 also will be biased toward the left and is limited in its movement toward the left by the position of the lobe portion 43 of the crank 39. Depending upon the size of the containers which are to be registered, the slide 19 and the pin carrying mechanism 22 are permitted to move to the left only to a preset degree. This is accomplished by a stop bar 51 fixed to the upper surface of the dove-tail shaped bar 15.

As can be seen, the bar 51 is provided with a horizontal slot therein for adjustable mounting to the bar 15. Its surface, which faces in the direction of the slide mem ber 46, will engage the slide member 46 when the slide 19 has moved to the left a predetermined extent. Prior to engagement of the slide member 46 with the stop bar 51, the pin 30 will have engaged the side wall of the bottle with a very light pressure, this pressure being provided by the retraction of the pin and compression of the spring 33. Preferably, the pin 30 is mounted in such fashion that its engagement with the surface of the side wall is at an acute angle.

Each container to be decorated is provided with an indicia in the form of a shallow depression or dimple 52. As can readily be seen, the container will be rotated with the pin 30 in sliding engagement with the side wall thereof; when the depression 52 is engaged by the pin 30, rotation of the bottle will be stopped. In actual practice, the rotation was stopped primarily because the drive for the pad contains a slip clutch which slips when the force to rotate the bottle exceeds a predetermined amount, this amount being supplied by the engagement of the pin 30 in the depression 52 formed in the side wall of the.

bottle.

As shown in FIG. 2, wherein the pin is in engagement with the depression 52, the bottle is now registered so that a specific portion of the side wall is oriented in proper location to be decorated without danger of the bottle seam appearing in the decoration. The movement of the slide 19 and pin carrying mechanism 22 in the direction of the bottle as the head is moved linearly along a path, is controlled by a cam 53. That is, the biasing force of spring 35 may in general not be sufiicient to overcome the frictional resistance encountered along the pivotal axis 55 of crank 39. Consequently, cam 53 will exert a controlled, inwardly directed force on roller 40. Thus, the clockwise rotation of crank 39 will result in registration pin 30 being brought into contact with the glass surface and ultimately into contact with depression 52. After the registration step has been carried out, it is necessary that the pin 30 be retracted from the depression 52 and be held out of engagement therewith during the period of decoration. To accomplish this, as the mechanism is moving linearly (from right to left in FIG. 3), a cam 54 will engage the roller 40 of the crank 39 causing the crank to rotate about its axis in a counter-clockwise direction resulting in the lobe portion 43 engaging the substantially planar surface 45 of the slide member 46 moving the slide member 46 toward the right, as viewed in FIG. 3, thus resulting in retracting pin 30 from depression 52.

Operation of the crank 39 is continued until the crank motion is stopped by engagement of the stop pin 41 with the arm 42. When this occurs and the crank is in the position shown in FIG. 3, the flat surface 44 of the crank 39 will now be in engagement with the relatively flat surface 45 of the slide member 46. While surface 45 tends to bias the lobe portion 43 of crank 39 in a clockwise direction because of the force of spring 35, when the surface 44 engages the surface 45 in the manner shown in FIG. 3, Le, the slide is in retracted position, a lock ing action occurs. This is because the crank has passed beyond dead center with respect to the plane of the surface 45 of the slide member 46, that is, surface 44 complements and matches surface 45 such that when the crank has moved the slide to a fully retracted position the two surfaces exhibit substantially no relative forces tending to move them apart. Thus, without further external operation of the crank 39 by engagement of its roller .40, the mechanism will remain in the position shown in FIG. 3. This will be the position of the registering mechanism until decoration is completed and the bottle is removed from the pad and a new bottle is placed thereon. At this time, the cam 53 will, as discussed above, engage the roller 40 and initiate movement of the pin carrying mechanism toward the left in the direction of the container so as to again position the pin 30 so that it will contact and slide relative to the body of the container with a very slight force.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for registering a container having a side- 'wall with registering indicium formed in said sidewall said apparatus comprising a housing having boss means thereon, a container bottom supporting pad, said pad being rotatably supported by said housing, a dual arm crank pivotally mounted to said boss means, one of said arms including a lobe portion and the other of said arms including stop means, a roller carried by said latter arm, stop engaging means on said boss means for limiting. the counter-clockwise rotation of said crank, a slideway mounted to said boss means beneath said pad and extending normal to the rotational axis of said pad, a slide carried by said slideway for movement thereon, slide stop means carried by said slideway for limiting the movement of said slide along said slideway, a registering pin carried by said slide for reciprocating movement into and out of engagement with a container on said pad, first resilient means for biasing said pin with a light force in the direction of said pad and container, second resilient means carried by said boss means coupled to said slide for biasing said slide in engagement with said lobe portion of said crank, cam means engageable with said roller for sequentially pivoting said crank in a clockwise and counterclockwise direction, whereby said registering pin is brought into sliding engagement with said container sidewall upon movement of said crank in a clockwise direction and said pin is retracted from engagement with said sidewall upon counterclockwise movement.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said stop engaging means on said boss means for limiting the counterclockwise rotation of said crank comprises a generally horizontally disposed arm.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said stop means on one of said crank arms comprises a vertically extending pin.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said first resilient means for biasing said pin in the direction of said pad and container comprises a compression spring.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 and further including means for adjusting the amount of biasing force exerted by said compression spring on said registering pin.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said second resilient means for biasing said slide in the direction of said crank comprises a tension spring, the force supplied by said compression spring being substantially less than that of the tension spring.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said registering pin is adapted to engage said container at an acute angle to the surface of the container.

8. Apparatus for registering a container having a sidewall with registering indicium formed therein, said apparatus comprising support means for rotating said container about its vertical axis, a slideway mounted adjacent said support means, a translatable registering pin carrying slide mounted on said slideway, means on said slide for lightly biasing said pin in the direction of said container sidewall at an elevation of said indicium, crank means engaging said slide for translating same, means for pivotally supporting said crank means for swinging movement in a horizontal plane, resilient means coupled to said slide for biasing said slide against said crank means, means engageable with said crank means for sequentially pivoting said crank means in a clockwise and counter-clockwise direction, whereby said registering pin is brought into non-normal sliding engagement with said container sidewall upon movement of said crank means in a clockwise direction and upon rotation of said container said pin will engage said reference indicium, said registering pin being retracted from said container upon movement of said crank in a counter-clockwise direction.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 and further including slide stop means carried by said slideway for limiting the movement of said slide.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 and further including crank stop means carried by said crank supporting means for limiting the counter-clockwise rotation of said crank means.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein said slide and said crank means include complemental substantially planar engaging surfaces for locking said crank means and said slide in retracted position upon movement of said crank means in a counter-clockwise direction.

12. In an apparatus for registering a container having reference indicium thereon, wherein said container is rotated by a container supporting pad and a registering pin carried by a spring operated slide is brought into sliding contact with said container, whereby upon engagement of said pin with said reference indicium the container is registered and its rotation is stopped, the improvement therein comprising means mounting said pin to said slide for limited relative movement of said pin and slide in the direction of approach of said pin to said container, and means lightly biasing said pin in the direction of said contaner.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said means lightly biasing said pin in the direction of said container compnses a spring.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,293,553 8/ 1942 Magnusson. 2,843,252 7/ 1958 Eddison. 2,880,845 4/ 1959 Carter.

RICHARD E. AEGERTER, Primary Examiner 

